MMA DFS Playbook: UFC 224 - Nunes vs. Pennington

13 May, 2018

Who will move closer to the middleweight title? Nunes did require a decision during her most recent title defense against Valentina Shevchenko at UFC 215 in September 2017.

"I feel like I need to beat him and make a statement", Gastelum said, per Matt Erickson and Fernanda Prates of MMAjunkie. That was back at UFC 190 in 2015, when Ronda Rousey took her fame to new heights by knocking out Bethe Correia in 34 seconds.

The only problem is her corner did not want to hear it.

Nunes will be unsafe early, as she always is.

Time certainly favors Kelvin Gastelum over Jacare Souza. Neither of those two are considered elite strikers, but still, those fights exemplified how quickly things can get out of hand in a Nunes fight.

This represents a classic bout in MMA. He will get a chance to put together back-to-back wins for the first time since 2014 against Belfort, who once again says he will retire after this fight. Shevchenko fought Nunes, knowingly giving up some size, and she was overpowered. "If I don't make a statement, I don't think I'll be able to contend for the title next". Referee Marc Goddard stopped the 135-pound title fight at the 2:36 mark of the final round, inside Jeunesse Arena. With higher caliber opponents, that is a grave mistake. Dern has had three of her six wins via submission, which is coincidentally how Cooper has sustained all three of her losses.

Namajunas didn't lose a round on route to victory and after several deep submission attempts, VanZant was finally unable to survive any longer as she tapped out to a rear-naked-choke in the fifth round.

Lineker is a Brazilian ranked sixth in the bantamweight division, whose champion is TJ Dillashaw. Only the top of the food chain have really given Lineker significant problems on the feet. Kelleher is tough. He has a durable chin and a good shot at taking this fight to a decision.

It's not hard to see the way this fight is "supposed" to go and the weight difference should only work as an advantage in the grappling department which is where this fight will likely take place. Middleweight Vitor Belfort and his service dog greet UFC Hall of Famer Minotauro Nogueira, and strawweight Mackenzie Dern does interviews. Belfort isn't almost what he used to be, but neither is Machida.

Still, I believe Machida has more spring in his step than Belfort.

This fight acted as just a sneak peak of what the young Colorado native, Namajunas was truly capable of and that despite showing great toughness, VanZant may have been built up a little bit too quickly by her superiors.

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